Thursday, January 15, 2015

Temporary workers in Australia can in some circumstances now apply for a Subclass 400 visa for an increased period of six months. Previously the maximum period of stay was three months. These changes were introduced on 23rd November 2014.

The subclass 400 visa is a short term, temporary work visa which is normally issued quickly to employ overseas workers who are urgently required for specialist level work in Australia. Overall it is much easier obtaining a Subclass 400 visa than, for example, a Subclass 457 Temporary skilled work visa.

In order to be granted a six month visa, you will need to put forward a strong business case detailing the reason for the extended stay. The Department of Immigration will consider the following when deciding whether to grant the six month extended visa period:

The number of Australian workers employed on the project, or within the company

The salary of the applicant, and whether they meet local labour market requirements

The size, nature and duration of the project to be carried out, and its impact to the local community

Whether there is time available for an Australian worker to be trained to carry out the proposed work

If these conditions are met then the Australian Government will consider granting the extended six month visa period.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Immigration is now the main concern for UK voters, according to various polls carried out by the opinion poll company YouGov.

In a series of surveys, immigration has come out either above, or tied with the economy in importance for voters in each survey carried out since May last year. In September, immigration polled 58%, while the economy only reached 48% as being of greatest concern to UK voters. YouGov have stated that this is one of the most important opinion trends of last year.

Will Dahlgreen from YouGov explains:

'From May to December immigration was seen as the most important issue facing the country, except for on three occasions when it was tied with the economy.'

'Although immigration began to narrow the gap at the end of 2013, 2014 is the first year since 2010 when the economy has not been the top issue.'

'Immigration had an average lead of one point over the whole year, compared to a deficit of 18 in 2013 and 32 in 2012.'

Europe

The data from these surveys also indicates that Europe is of increasing concern amongst voters, with only 7% of people choosing it in 2010 as being of greatest concern, compared to 25% in October. These concerns can somewhat explain the rise of UKIP over the past year, as currently they are the only party who have openly stated that they want the UK to leave the EU. If this were to happen then the UK would no longer be governed by EU migration laws.

In May last year, UKIP came out on top in the European elections, winning 4.3m votes, pushing Labour into second place, and the Conservatives into third. UKIP also won two local by-elections for parliamentary seats in the House of Commons, in Rochester and Clacton.

UKIP

The other political parties have responded to this surge in support for UKIP – David Cameron has promised to stop EU migrants claiming benefits until they have paid into the system for four years. Ed Miliband of the Labour Party has also tried to be seen to be tough on immigration; however it has been suggested that he appears to fumble and change the subject when asked a question directly on immigration.

Lord Green, crossbench peer and Chairman of the anti-immigration MigrationWatch says 'These are remarkable findings. It's simply not possible for the political class to remain in denial any longer. Suggestions that those who are canvassing should simply change the subject are now clearly absurd. The public want effective answers on immigration and will see through attempts to dodge the issue.'

Labour MP for Rochdale Simon Danczuk himself of Eastern European descent has explained that politicians have been too slow to recognise immigration as an issue. He said: 'People have been mentioning immigration to me a lot on the doorstep, people from all different backgrounds including ethnic minorities, working class and middle class people. People feel strongly about it.'

Thursday, January 8, 2015

The Home Office has 'lost' about 174,000 illegal immigrants, according to a new report by John Vine, Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.

According to the report, there were 232,000 foreign migrants who had their visa extension applications rejected prior to 2008. It was expected that these migrants would then have returned to their home countries – however the report suggests that by 2012 only 58,000 of these migrants had left the UK, only one quarter of the total.

It seems that the remaining three quarters (174,057) who had been refused further leave to remain in the UK were still residing in the UK and can no longer be traced by immigration authorities. Since 2012 the number of people who can no longer be found by UK immigration has seen only a small reduction to 173,562 people.

Warning

'Any failure to take action against foreign nationals who overstay their permission to be in the UK has the potential to undermine public confidence in immigration control,' Mr Vine warned.

The report also suggested that 80 percent of foreign students remain in the UK once their student visas expire. Many of course qualify for other types of visas, but some also enter into 'sham' weddings in order to remain in the UK. According to the report, some 85 percent of all sham marriage grooms are students.

In a recent case, marriage ringleader Ibrahim Mahter was caught hiring out his own girlfriend to take part in bogus marriage ceremonies for £8000 a time. Most of the grooms were from India or Pakistan.

UK Home Secretary Theresa May has been accused of attempting to suppress the report; she has previously clashed with Vine over the timing of immigration reports embarrassing to the Government. Last year a report on border security was censored by the Home Secretary

Allegations

Theresa May is set to face questions over allegations that she attempted to 'bury' the report just days before the UK parliament went into recess for the Christmas period.

David Hanson, Shadow Immigration Minister commented: 'Theresa May has sought to bury reports because they lay bare the total chaos within her own department. They have exposed a murderer granted British citizenship, a growing asylum backlog and 175,000 people here illegally who have disappeared.'

Ms May did not respond directly to these allegations, however the UK Immigration and Security minister, James Brokenshire said:

'We are committed to building an immigration system which is fair to British citizens and legitimate migrants and, as this report makes clear, applying a rigour to the immigration system that it has been lacking for many years.'